Unionized Indigo and Chapters workers facing uphill battles: union

An Indigo bookstore is seen Wednesday, November 4, 2020, in Laval, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

A few years after several Indigo and Chapters stores unionized, one location is set to close as its union says the retailer has made things increasingly difficult for workers.

Employees have picketed on multiple weekends outside the Chapters store at Kennedy Commons in Scarborough, Ont., after being told the location will close later this month.

The store is one of four Ontario locations that unionized with the 1006A chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union between September 2020 and August 2021.

When the closure was announced in December, the employees were told they couldn’t transfer to other stores, even though that’s what has happened when other stores have closed, said Victoria Popov, an employee and union steward.

"We were told none of us would be transferred, and that we could apply to any open position, like a member of the public," she said.

“People were very upset."

The employees are being offered the legal minimum in terms of severance, said Popov. Some have been with the company for more than two decades and are nearing retirement age.

“It just seems so patently unfair to me," she said.

In Ontario, employees qualify for severance pay if they’ve worked for an employer for five or more years, among other criteria. Those who qualify are entitled to payment based on their regular weekly wages and the number of years they’ve been employed.

The union is asking Indigo to extend employee benefits for the workers, as well as improve severance payments and offer transfers, said Lesley Prince, director of organizing at UFCW Local 1006A.

In an emailed statement responding to questions about the Scarborough closure and other unionized stores, Indigo spokesperson Melissa Perri said the company respects employees’ rights to seek representation but prefers to have a direct dialogue with workers.

“Where employees are represented, we strive to establish a constructive and open dialogue with the union. Indigo always bargains in good faith with its unions and is committed to complying with the terms of the collective agreements,” she said.

The lease at the Scarborough store expires at the end of February. As part of a regular review of the company’s real estate portfolio and after negotiations over the lease, Indigo decided to close the store due to poor financial performance, said Perri.

Prince said the Scarborough store isn’t the only unionized location facing difficulties.

The Indigo store at Square One in Mississauga, Ont., has been in bargaining since May, but the company hasn’t responded meaningfully to workers’ main concerns, said Prince. The union in December held a strike vote that was 97 per cent in favour, she said. Another store, at Toronto's Yorkdale mall, is set to start bargaining this year.

In May 2023, an application to decertify the Woodbridge, Ont., Chapters store was filed with the Ontario Labour Relations Board. An employee vote was held later the same month, but the ballot box has been sealed, said Prince, because the union is accusing Indigo of an employer-led decertification.

Outside of Ontario, two stores unionized in October 2020 -- one in Montreal with a different union, while a Chapters store in Coquitlam, B.C., unionized with UFCW Local 247.

In late 2021, the Coquitlam workers ratified their first contract after a challenging period of bargaining, said Charles Pratt, secretary treasurer of Local 247.

Indigo then went on a hiring spree, bringing on a significant increase in workers at the store, he said. With a wider pool of workers, all employees, even the most senior, were getting far fewer hours.

Over time, the employees who had fought for a union or voted for one left for jobs with better hours, said Pratt, and union support was watered down as more new workers were brought on. In September 2022, the store decertified.

In Indigo’s annual report for the 2023 financial year ended April 1, the company said most of its approximately 5,000 employees are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

If a significant number of employees were to become unionized, this could “have adverse consequences for the operational or financial conditions” at the unionized stores, the report states.

UFCW has been seeing increasing interest from Indigo employees since 2020, when the pandemic turned many retail and service workers into essential workers but also raised concerns about safety on the front lines, said Debora De Angelis, Ontario regional director for UFCW and the co-ordinator for national strategic campaigns.

But it’s difficult to organize in retail, she said.

According to Statistics Canada, in November 2023, just over 12 per cent of workers in the wholesale and retail trade sector were covered by a union, barely higher than the same month pre-pandemic.

“Unions in Canada have been trying to break into the low-wage retail sector for decades without much success,” said Brock University labour professor Larry Savage.

“They need to contend with high turnover, workers being spread out over many workplaces, and retail employers who are committed to doing everything possible to keep unions out.”

There are a number of legislative changes that could make it easier for workers to unionize or to bargain their first contract, said De Angelis, noting that some provinces, such as B.C., have better provisions than others.

The impending closure of the Scarborough Chapters is disheartening, said Popov, but she’s proud of what she and her colleagues have done. She feels it’s part of a much bigger fight that’s playing out across North America at companies like Starbucks.

“I think that the solution to this is unionizing more stores. It is very easy to target one, two or three stores. It is much harder to target 10 or 12 or 13 or an entire company,” she said.

“I hope that this fight will continue. And I hope, ultimately, that in the future, people will look back at our tiny efforts, and they will have produced ripples that will have resulted in greater change.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 9, 2024.